The martial arts are usually considered to include any of several oriental arts of combat or self defense such as karate, judo or tae kwon do which are usually practiced as a sport. A facet in the field of martial arts is kick boxing or low kicks with the foot. That is, a low kick by the martial artist is delivered to the leg of an opponent, customarily the forward leg. The purpose is primarily defensive, that is, to deliver a blow to an opponent which will discourage further attack. Since a properly executed blow can cause severe and even permanent damage to the opponent's leg, it is important in practicing the techniques involved that a simulated human leg be used to avoid injury.
Numerous devices have been developed for use in martial arts training and even specifically designed to use in training in the use of the low kick. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,652 discloses an apparatus which ostensibly resembles in movement and function a human leg, particularly in response to a low kick. A simulated leg is mounted to a base and the simulated leg components comprise a lower and upper leg which are mounted to a suitable frame work. According to the disclosure in the patent, a properly executed low kick causes a collapse of the leg, that is, the two sections of the leg bend. U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,472 discloses a training dummy for combat sports which has a head and chest portions secured to a frame. The dummy can also be equipped with articulated and weighted limbs as shown in FIG. 2 of the patent. A still further example of martial arts training apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,029, the device or apparatus allegedly useful for practicing defensive strokes such as punching, striking and kicking. The apparatus includes a base, two arc supports of differing heights, which are resiliently attached in a vertical plane to the base with striking areas supported on the side of the arc supports. McArdle U.S. Pat. No. 1,267,678 discloses a practice dummy for boxers which utilizes two striking bags, an upper bag designed to represent the human head and then the lower bag to represent the human body. The entire two bag assembly is suspended from overhead and can also be tethered to the ground by means of a spring assembly. The bags are mounted so that they are in a sense "flexible" in that the upper bag, which represents the head, is designed to take the impact of "upper cut" blows. This apparatus is designed primarily for the use of boxers and probably has little or no relevance in the training in the use of the low kick.